Three Studies: Standing Figure Facing Left; Interior with Two Figures and a Dog; Landscape (from Sketchbook)
ca. 1838 and after
Medium
Graphite on off-white wove paper
Dimensions
6 5/8 x 8 in. (16.8 x 20.3 cm)
Classification
Drawing
Culture
American
Department
The American Wing
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Sheila and Richard J. Schwartz Fund, 1987
Accession Number
1987.196.3qq recto
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the bustling artistic scene of 19th-century America, Francis William Edmonds, a genre painter and banker from New York, captured everyday life with a keen eye detail. This sketchbook, dated around 1838 and later, features three intimate studies: a standing figure left, an interior scene two figures and a dog and a landscape. Rendered in graphite on off-white w paper (measuring 6 5/8 x 8 in.), these quick pencil drawings showcase Edmonds' preparatory process, blending human figures, domestic warmth, and natural vistas—hallmarks of his realist style. Edmonds' work reflects the era's growing ...
About the Artist
Francis William Edmonds · 1806–1863
Francis William Edmonds, born on November 22, 1806, in Hudson, New York, into a prominent Quaker family as the seventh child of storekeeper and public servant Samuel Edmonds and Lydia Worth Edmonds, displayed remarkable artistic talent from youth. After Quaker schooling and farm work, he entered banking in 1823 as a clerk at the Tradesmen's Bank in New York City under his uncle Gorham Worth, a pat...